How will the law recognise those refused to identify gender, SG asks SC on plea for same sex marriage
New Delhi, Apr 26 (FN Agency) The Centre on Wednesday contended before the Supreme Court that the issue of same sex marriage case should be left to Parliament to decide in view of its complexity and social ramifications. Initiating the arguments on behalf of the Union government to a batch of petitions filed by Supriyo alias Supriya Chakraborty, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta submitted before a five-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dr Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud if the prayers are allowed, they will affect heterogeneous couples. Thr argument was inconclusive today and would continue tomorrow before the same five-judge constitution bench.
“This court can’t use different lenses for different categories of persons under the same law. It will be impossible for this court to reconcile the situations,” he asserted. He contended in LGBTQIA+, it isn’t explained what ‘+’ means. “There are at least 72 shades and categories of people in ‘+’. If this court were to give recognition to undefined categories and the judgement will affect 160 laws, how will we regulate all this,” he asked. He further said there are people who refused to identify under any gender. “How will the law recognise them? As a man or a woman? There is a category that says gender will depend on mood swings. What would be their gender in a given situation, nobody knows,” he submitted. Mehta said the real question in the matter is who would take a call on what constitutes a valid marriage and between whom. “There are several ramifications not only on society but unintended ramifications on other statutes as well,” he pointed out. A vast category of debates are required by society, states and civil society groups. The court can still save the rest of the exercise. As many as 160 legal provisions spanning different statutes can’t be reconciled if the prayers are allowed, he claimed. In his arguments, Mehta asked if the matter should not go first to Parliament or state legislatures.